


Rescue to the Rescue

by goldenambedo



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Compliant, Flash Thompson Being A Jerk, Peter Parker Has Panic Attacks, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker Whump, Peter Parker has PTSD, Peter Parker is a Mess, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Tony is dead, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:08:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26304655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldenambedo/pseuds/goldenambedo
Summary: It had been two months, one week and four days since Peter Parker came back from the dead. And he was finally going back to school. Back to normalcy.He was going to try, anyway. But his grief that he refused to deal with plus his PTSD that he refused to deal with plus Flash being a dick meant that that probably wasn't going to go so well for him.He was going to try anyway.AKA Peter goes back to Midtown after Tony's death and has a panic attack because Flash is a dick.
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Peter Parker & Pepper Potts, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Kudos: 166





	Rescue to the Rescue

It had been two months, one week and four days since Peter Parker came back from the dead.

Since his school didn’t exactly know about the relationship he’d had with Tony Stark or his status as Spider-Man, Peter had to return to school. He was traumatised, and definitely unprepared for life to continue with him playing five years worth of cultural catch-up, but if he didn’t go he’d get at best a lot of detentions, and at worst permanently suspended.

With all of his absences from patrol piling up before he went to space, the school had definitely noticed his drop in attendance, and just because he... Just because he had died for a few years, didn’t mean they were going to put it behind them. The world was very set on going back to business as usual after the blip. The general public didn’t know the full details of what happened, and their way of coping with the unexplained trauma was to just... Not.

So Peter wasn’t coping with it either; he couldn’t afford the days off just for his mental health if no one else that had gone through a bit of trauma was doing so either. Maybe his mental health was a little worse than others’—after two weeks straight of night terrors and panic attacks at the drop of a hat Pepper called the best therapist she knew in and Peter was diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety and possibly depression (with the loss he was processing it was apparently hard to tell)—but that didn’t mean much to him.

He could just push down the complicated feelings that bubbled up every time he saw an Iron Man memorial, or heard Tony’s name mentioned. He could ignore the way he sometimes needed to just hold on to something tight so he could remind himself he wasn’t fighting off his death anymore. He could forget how every time someone snapped their fingers he saw everyone around him disintegrate, saw Tony kill himself to save everyone. He could ignore it all. He had to. It would do until he figured out a more effective, long-term solution to fix the grief and the trauma.

A scatter of light footsteps down the hall snapped Peter out of his thoughts, and he looked up to the wooden doorframe just in time to see Morgan Stark run into view. The furrow of his brows smoothed out immediately, and he managed a quirk of his lips for the kid.

“What’s up, Maguna?”

Morgan bounded up to him and held out a chubby hand expectantly.

“Mommy and May says time to go.” She deadpanned when he didn’t reach for her outstretched hand.

“Ah, wouldn’t want to leave them waiting then.” He humoured the urgency Morgan possessed as she dragged him along, even adding a, “they can be scary ladies, can’t they?” which elicited a sweet giggle.

Once they arrived in the Stark kitchen they were greeted with the sight of May and Pepper talking quietly as May packed up some snacks into a paper bag. They went quiet when they noticed the kids walk in.

“Look who’s finally ready.” Pepper smiled at Peter, the bite missing from her tone and replaced with fondness. May on the other hand just looked worried.

“Pete, you don’t have to go back today. I have a whole list of excuses I haven’t used yet.” She said gently, but Peter shook his head.

The excuses she was talking about were questionable at best. He’d managed to miss a week so far, May and Pepper coming up with a new ailment each day. It was sweet, really it was, it was just that Pepper and May were visibly tired at this point. The battle happened two months and a week ago yet Pepper hadn’t had time to mourn the loss of her husband and May hadn’t had time to deal with being five years in the past. They were so dedicated to helping Peter and Morgan that they were forgetting themselves.

He also hadn’t let them tell Midtown about his recent diagnoses. He said that the school knowing would make him even more paranoid about them figuring out something else had happened to him, and that that would make him feel worse. While that was partially true, that wasn’t why he didn’t want Midtown to know. He didn’t want even more things to change, as naïve and self-destructive as that was. Ned and MJ didn’t even know how bad he was doing, why would he want all the teachers to know, to treat him like he was made of glass?

“No, I’ll go. I miss Ned and MJ.” And he was tired of holding May back from finding them a new apartment or finding herself a new job. He was tired of being the reason they were burdening Pepper, who should’ve been grieving with her daughter, with his presence because he was too scared to go back to the real world.

He wasn’t going to say that bit aloud though. And he wasn’t really lying: he did miss Ned and MJ. Pepper couldn’t let strangers know where the cabin was for her safety, and Peter understood that; just because Tony was... didn’t mean his enemies didn’t want revenge anymore. So Peter hadn’t been able to see his best friends in person since his return.

Sure, he could’ve left the cabin to see them, but... Even for school he was struggling with the idea of being away from his family. Paranoia told him his last living links to Tony would die without his protection, and that if he couldn’t see May she could be disintegrating again. Things that were out of sight could disappear without him even knowing, and that was terrifying.

“It’ll be good for you.” Pepper agreed, “Just don’t push yourself too much. We’re just a tap away.”

As she spoke she gestured to the expensive smart watch wrapped around Peter’s left wrist. Tony made it for him while he was gone, apparently, and it was awesome. On the underside there was the same spider symbol that was embedded in his spider-man suit, and it had so many cool features. Karen was even in there, activated by a voice command and voice recognition. Oh, and there was a panic signal he could send to Pepper and May. It was supposed to send to Tony, but... you know. The watch made his shattered heart feel a bit more put together too. Tony made it for him.

“Yeah, I know.” He mumbled, fingers fidgeting with the watch strap as the women watched sympathetically. He hated when they looked at him like that. “Anyway, let’s roll?”

* * *

“Have a good day, sweetheart!” May called as he got out of the sleek black car, Pepper and Morgan waving from their seats too. Even Happy, who had driven them silently for the past hour and a half, gave him a nod of good luck before speeding away from the high school. He walked up to the bottom of the building’s steps and took a deep breath.

Five years ago he would have died of mortification at being dropped off directly outside of Midtown by a car that looked that fancy, but he had bigger things to worry about, and couldn’t bring himself to care about something as small as that. Just like he couldn’t bring himself to care about the fact that he was wearing an old MIT sweatshirt of Tony’s that had his first initial and surname printed on its left breast. It smelt a bit questionable but that was only because Peter refused to wash it of the lingering scents of oil and distinct Tony Stark musk. He barely wore it, preferring to bundle it up by his pillow when he slept, but justified it for the stress he felt building up for his return to school.

“Welcome back, Penis!” Flash shouted from his convertible as he drove by him, honking his car horn loudly. Peter almost jumped out of his skin at the sound, his heart already starting to race as the horn echoed in his mind. Wiping his clammy hands on his worn jeans, he took another breath.

The familiarity of Flash’s taunting was almost comfortable amongst all the new faces that were bustling around him. Almost. And it answered the question of what happened to Flash during the blip. That made for the running tally of who got blipped to at least three of his classmates.

A distinct voice shouting, “Peter!” snapped him out of his thoughts. He whirled around excitedly to see Ned speed walking down the steps to the building. The small group of robotics club attendees he’d been standing with at the top of the steps were immediately abandoned so he could give Peter a hug and do their signature handshake.

“Hey.” Peter managed quietly, a little smile tugging at his lips as he got the physical confirmation that Ned was alive and okay. Sure, he already knew that, they’d been texting every single day. But it was different to see the evidence in person. Anything in sight was real. It was there. Ned was there, and solid, and _there_.

Ned smiled back for a moment, but after looking searchingly at peter’s face for a few seconds the smile dropped. In its place he wore a serious, worried expression.

“Not that I’m not super happy you’re back, but why are you here?”

Peter blinked at the question, a subconscious hand coming up to rub at his forearm.

“Um..”

Ned shook his head and brought him in for another hug. This one was a little tighter, more comforting.

“You should be home, resting and–“ He paused for a second, and continued hesitantly, “and mourning.”

Peter tried not to flinch, but he didn’t quite succeed.

“School doesn’t know that though. I’m just a scholarship kid, Ned. If I don’t come then– then I could lose that.”

The look on Ned’s face as Peter said that meant he wanted to argue a bit on the subject, but before he got the chance to open his mouth again, the bell for first period rang. Unfortunately, the first class of the day was history, a class that Peter and Ned didn’t share.

* * *

So, Flash was in his history class. And his teasing (bullying) wasn’t comforting anymore.

The teacher—Peter didn’t recognise her, which meant she was another new thing he’d have to acclimate to—had seated Peter with Flash once she realised he’d been blipped too. What an innocent mistake, she probably thought they’d have sympathy for one another and be friendly. Well, Peter was kind of doing that, opting to stare in between the lines of text in the book he had open on his desk. Coincidentally, Ms Atkins was going through some superhero history to raise the classes spirits after Tony’s passing.

“Remember, Captain America wasn’t always so buff. His best friend used to fight bullies for him because he was sickly back in the day…” She droned on, and Peter stared harder at his textbook.

If he stopped staring at the page for even a second, he could see Mr Rogers on the battlefield, looking so in pain as he fought Thanos. He could see him tearing up at the funeral. He could hear their brief conversation before Mr Rogers had gone back into his time—

“Could you not breathe like that? Jeeze, Parker.” Flash was saying all of a sudden, and Peter realised he was breathing a tad fast. He nodded and swallowed harshly, hoping to interrupt his faster breaths before they evolved into hyperventilating.

“Not even got anything to say? Hm, wonder if me asking how your fake internship with Tony Stark is going would help–“ Flash paused for a moment to fake a gasp of shock, not noticing how Peter’s eyes were starting to tear up, “Oh wait, there’s no way! Tony Stark is dead.”

A snicker followed Flash’s words, and then a sniffle from Peter as one single tear fell onto the textbook page. He blinked a few times, and wanted nothing more than to leave. Tony was dead. He knew that. Really, he did. But every reminder felt like he was getting hit by a train. Tony was _dead_.

He could hear his final conversation with Tony replaying over and over in his head. Well, conversation was… A stretch. It was just Peter talking at a dying man and hoping the words were being understood. He didn’t even have the courage to tell Tony he loved him as he died. How pathetic.

In his lap, his fists clenched dangerously tight. As the seconds passed, his hearing phased out from his teacher talking about Steve, and he could hear the shouts, the screams of battle, the Wakandan chants. He could hear Tony’s last words, the sounds of explosions and the crackle of fire. The world around him seemed to become tinged with orange, a mix of Titan’s warm sky and the glow of fires that surrounded the compound during the final battle.

He knew his breathing wasn’t great anymore, but he felt detached from his body. He wasn’t in a classroom anymore, he was on the back of a pegasus, he was holding onto a gauntlet holding all of the powers the universe had to offer, he was watching his father figure kill himself, he was hearing Pepper sob, Thanos laugh.

Yeah, he breathing was definitely out of control. He could barely feel the breaths going into his lungs anymore, the in-out-in-out of the breaths going so fast that his head felt light. No. If he felt faint that meant he could fade away at any moment. He didn’t want to die again. He didn’t. He didn’t want to go, Mr Stark. Please.

Far away he heard a metallic clang. He knew it couldn’t be Tony, but for a second he let himself believe it. Mr Stark was there… He was going to save him, he was okay.

“Hey, Pete- need you- with me- you do- okay?” He couldn’t understand what was being said to him, but Tony didn’t sound like himself for some reason.

“M’sr St’rk..” He gasped, feeling himself slam back into the real world all at once. The orange around him disappeared, and he was looking down at his lap, one hand clutching at his wrist. He was bleeding, he noticed.

“Look at me, kid.” That definitely wasn’t Tony. He looked up and saw Pepper, face shield of the Rescue suit up, and sad eyes focused on him. Right. Tony was dead.

His eyes welled up with fresh tears, and his breaths were still going way too fast, but as the tears started to fall a metal hand wrapped around his wrist and pressed his palm up against his chest. His heartbeat was going crazy.

“Let’s slow that down, hm?” Pepper said in a soothing voice, and for a few minutes, it was just her and Peter. He forgot where he was, just knew he needed to calm down, breathe, and focus on Pepper.

Eventually his breaths were slow enough that he could sigh without it being interrupted by a desperate gasp, and he managed a smile up at Pepper. She was still looking at him with pitying eyes, and he was confused for a second.

Then he remembered where he was. His eyes widened again, and darted around the room only to see that it was empty. Somehow. He dragged his line of sight back to Pepper, question written clearly in his face.

“Your teacher sent everyone for an early break.” She said simply, and he frowned. He’d only been in class for.. twenty minutes, max.

“I hope you’re feeling okay now, Mr Parker.” Ms Atkins chimed in suddenly, and he jumped in his seat. He hadn’t noticed she was still in the room.

Pepper glanced over her shoulder at the teacher and nodded.

“I’ll be taking him home now.” She said, no request in her voice. Ms. Atkins nodded.

“Of course. You’ll have to sign him out at reception, I- as long as you’re an emergency contact, it’ll be fine.”

Pepper helped Peter collect his things, put an arm around his shoulder and then seemed to realise she was still in the Rescue suit.

“This thing feels way too natural sometimes.” She scrunched her face up, and then suddenly stepped out of the suit. “Much better.”

Peter was confused for a second as Pepper continued guiding him out of the room, but he could hear Rescue following them out of the classroom to the hallway. Thankfully, it was mostly empty, but Peter could hear his classmates from somewhere down the hall.

“Parker knows Pepper Stark, somehow.” “Maybe his internship was real after all.” “I can’t believe we got to see a suit- is Mrs Stark, like, the new Iron Man or something?” “Can’t believe Parker broke down like that.”

He didn’t recognise any of those voices, but he listened for a few more seconds and found Flash’s voice, a bit further away.

“I feel so shitty, man. I made him, like, break down. Proper lost his shit. Didn’t think he actually fucking knew Tony Stark. How was I supposed to know?” It sounded like he was on the phone to someone.

Peter was glad he felt like shit. He kind of deserved it.

He just hoped the whole mess didn’t end up on Twitter. He didn’t think he’d be able to handle any more change in his life.

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this sat in my notes for a while, but I never knew how to end it so I finished it today. Sorry if it feels rushed or unresolved, I tried my best :) Hope you enjoyed!!


End file.
